We had a great time at Nickelodeon. Very ,very kid friendly! We left the morning of September 11th. I made breakfast sandwiches for the ride to the airport. I did not purchase anything in the airport everything is so overpriced.
This was my first experience using Mears transportation and I was impressed! They were on time and very friendly (for arrival and departure) . I would definetly use them again in the future
Ok so on the way to Nickelodeon my son kept whining about not going to Disney
He told me everyday at home that he wanted Nickelodeon but once he saw the Mickey buses he wanted Disney and nothing else but Disney !
I have to admit I felt a twinge of pain when looking at the Magical Express and realizing this was not a Disney trip.
We arrived at Nickelodeon and he instantly became excited. They both squealed with happiness the other passengers were happy for them and said to have a great time. They did have an amazing time!
We checked in and the room was not ready so we headed to Guest Services to make reservations for shows. The receptionist was very nice but I warn you...they are evil timeshare people! She slyly got me to answer some questions reguarding my income and it did not register to me until I saw a Vistana tag on her shirt
I was like wait why is she asking me this ?! She said something about Nickelodeon dollars and seeing if I qualified. I answered truthfully I did'nt qualify( $70,000 a year if you are single) Speaking of which I had a VERY bad experience with the Guest Services receptionist in "The Mall" area. I was in line and some guy in front of me was taking a very long time . I just wanted to change my bus reservation time and get out of there. He held up the line for everyone! Once he left I told the receptionist I wanted to change my bus reservation and she says ok but first i want to ask you some questions
I was polite and said Ok
She said ok did you qualify for the Nickelodeon Dollars. I said no I did not qualify I just want to change my bus reservaton. I was VISIBLY irritated. This woman was eithier totally oblivious or just did not care.She than says "Ok why did you not qualify ?" Ugh seriously
I had to exhale because everything in me wanted to just ....
. You get the drift...I said I did not qualify because I did not meet the income requirements ($70,000 per year /single)Even if I did meet the requirements I would never be interested in a timeshare.Period. Im going to end the story right here because Im just going to upset myself. She was rude and snotty . If I were not in Nickelodeon Hotel I would've been arrested for battery and probaly banned for life. I enjoyed the hotel and did not want to ruin my children's vacation by letting this woman push my buttons.I just want to warn you that they sell timeshare and are pushy. They even call your hotel room. In general the staff was very friendly.
We headed to the mall for our first meal. They had a sit down restaurant and two quick service counters. They also had a buffet . On the website it states they do dinner as well but it was closed when we were there. I bought the kids two cheeseburgers/fries /small soda . It was $12.53 . Not bad. They enjoyed it. I never ate a cheeseburger there so I cant give a review and it was not picture worthy.
I packed tuna fish/cracker packs for my lunch . I was still worried about money at this point. It was OK. I also packed soda/juice/muffins/poptarts and cookies.
We visited the arcade and it was small but the kids enjoyed it. We also saw Dora/Diego with no lines as well as Spongebob/Patrick within that first hour!
I got a text when the room was ready and it was quite a walk. The layout is wierd . Im just glad I was in the Lagoon section because Oasis was VERY far and that water park is closed during the weekdays.
The bad reviews about Nick Hotel are NOT true. The room was cool when we entered. The couch was clean and the carpet was dry and appeared to be clean. The bathroom was very clean and I
the bed . It was very plush! I have a difficult time falling asleep and within minutes of laying on this bed I was knocked out. I found out that it is a Simmons HealthSmart Signature Plush .I'm so going to buy this mattress!!
We immediately headed out to the waterpark just in time for the mass sliming . I hate cold pool water and the Nick Hotel pool is heated to the perfect temperature! It's not cold at all and it's slightly warm. We got slimed and it was a blast . We stayed in the pool for hours . It's such a fun waterpark. I ordered Giordano's for dinner . I got a coupon for a free tomato basil appetizer at Guest Services in the lobby (the nice one ) I always wanted to try thier stuffed pizza and never had the opportunity because we always stayed at Disney with the Dining plan.
I ordered a large sausage ,chicken tenders (in case the kids didn't like the pizza) and the appetizer. The total was 33.61 . I tipped $4 on that total because I got lost in the buildings! It took me so long to find the lobby that the pizza guy called the room while we were away .
Day two of our trip we had breakfast in the room. The kids wanted poptarts . I had a muffin. Nick Hotel sells groceries in "The Mall" I picked up a pack of fruit for $5.75. They ate the poptarts and a banana each . We headed to the water park where we spent the bulk of our day. We went to our room for the 1:00 pm pool break and had lunch .We had leftover pizza and chicken tenders and the juices/soda I bought in our checked luggage !The kids LOVED Giordano's pizza. I am a big eater and I got full from one slice . It's delicious and very filling. I took pics of the pizza but I deleted them to make room for more pics (which turned out to be crappy on my cell phone) .We went back to the waterpark after lunch for a couple more hours.
We got out at 5:00 pm to get ready for the Spongebob Crabby Patty Celebration . It was a cute show. I expected more though
The waterpark is really nice imo the pictures does not do it justice
As you can see we are well into Day 2 evening and I've barely touched the food budget at all.
I bought the kids popscicles in "The Mall" the total was $6.00 something . We had about an hour before Slime Time Live was supposed to start and so I decided to purchase wristbands for the 4D movie experiences. The wristbands are 12.95 each plus tax.I spent 27.95 on our wristbands . (3 years and younger are free) I would like to say I enjoyed the movies but honestly I did not. The theater is FREEZING cold.I kid you not..make sure you bring a winter coat if you watch the movies there! I was so uncomfortably cold I could not enjoy the movies I paid for. The effects just make you colder with the wind and the spontaneous water splashes . I thought the spongebob 4D movie was the best one. I loved the pickle juice smell effect
The craziest part of the whole thing is each movie is 10 minutes long and they'd have a 6 minute break. The theater had maybe six families in the whole thing and after each movie we had to leave ...and come back!! It was so stupid. The movie ends and you'd have to file out the back door...go back through the entrance of the mall wait two minutes and come back in for the next movie!!
I can't say this enough...bring a coat to the theater!! It really is that cold in there. I did not see the last two movies because I could'nt bare to sit through that cold any longer. I felt like it was a waste of money because we only had one day to see the movies but if you were staying longer the wristbands would be a great deal.
We left the theater and went to The Grill for dinner. DD wanted a cheeseburger again and DS had a corndog /fries .
I bought a subway turkey footlong and chicken noodle soup. The total was under $20 for everything . I could have definetly afforded the character breakfast AND the sit down restaurant .The food in the sit down restaurant did not look that good .It looked like quick service food to me so we skipped it. We also had no desire to do the character breakfast because the characters were always out . We met all the characters many times over. I loved that about the Nick Hotel. No obnoxious long lines like Disney .
We went back to the room and the kids ate cookies/juice and went to bed.
We slept in on our final day . We woke up at around 11:00 am and ate a quick breakfast in the room and spent the morning in the water park ! We loved the waterpark...the kids just had a blast. I met so many nice people as well . It was just a good time. I was really sad we had to leave the next morning . We left the park around 12:45 pm to get dressed for the
MNSSHP!! We caught the shuttle bus at 2:00 pm . We could not get into MK until 4:00 pm so we decided to grab something to eat . I was debating between Kona and Capt .Cooks and in the end decided to grab quick service at Wilderness Lodge. We took the ferry boat to Wilderness Lodge and I loved WL.It's a very beautiful resort . We ate at Roaring Forks . We got to the counter and DS said NO to each and every kids meals .They had a chef's special penne pasta with marina sauce,parmesan cheese and sausage.I asked him if he wanted pasta and he said yes so I ordered it. DD wanted a cheeseburger kids meal again.I tried to get her to order something diffrent and she wouldn't budge so cheeseburger it was
I also saw magic cookie bars! I heard about them but never tried them so of course I grabbed one!
I had a Disney gift card so I used that to pay for our food .It was about $21.00 something ?? We get to the table and DS didnt want the pasta at all. He wanted a cheeseburger like dd
In his defense the burger /fries/grapes did look good
I went back up to the counter and got the same thing for him . I used the card and the total was $5.89 .
The chef's special was delicious ! I loved it. I used the parmesan cheese packets for extra cheesiness .The portion was also very large
Magic Cookie Bar
We got to the MK at around 3:57 pm .The decorations were beautiful . Most of the rides were walk on. We rode Carpets first, than POTC ,Splash,Thunder twice,Peter Pan,IASW, Dumbo and Phillarmagic twice before 7:00 pm! We got front row seats for the 8:15 Boo To You Parade in Frontierland . I planned on eating at CHH later but it was closed. I was SO upset! We had to eat Peco's Bill later but it all worked out. I bought a HUGE bag of Tortilla Chips for dinner and we put it in a big bowl walked right up to the free fixin bar and covered it in free hot cheese and all the fixins!! Oh we were the talk of the town!!
Everyone was like oh wow why didn't we think of that ?!
Just kidding!!
We ordered the angus burger combo and two cheeseburger kids meals...no other options in MK .Casey's Corner was closed and so was the sit down restaurants. I would've ate at Tony's if it were open just so the kids would have more variety.
We split a Dole Whip Float and I bought popscicles/drinks throughout the night. We got a TON of candy as well .
I took some pics of the parade but my crappy camera is not that great
We left MK and the lines were really long everywhere. We decided to skip TTA and go straight to a resort to catch a taxi! (My bright idea
) We took a ferry to Grand Floridian(smells great in there!) and walked straight to a taxi
We were back in Nickelodeon in minutes.
Our check out day was uneventful . I bought the kids souvenirs ...a spongebob hat for DS (I also bought him a train in MK) and DD a huge stuffed Dora Plush .I also bought a souvenir mug ..total was $60 . I bought the kids uncrustables/OJ to for breakfast . Total was $8.93 in the Nick Hotel . (3 Uncrustable /1 OJ)
I still came home with MORE than half of my food budget (even spending it on souvenirs/other stuff at the hotel). The trip was great and we didn't starve
We really enjoyed Nickelodeon Hotel ,ignore the bad reviews it's very clean and fun .
